The present invention relates to a novel sign having variable indicators of direction.
Railroad cars employed to transport vehicles generally load all the vehicles facing in one direction. Such loading to facilitate unloading of the cars at the destination terminal which may be a great distance from the loading point. When a rail car arrives at the unloading destination, observers must be assigned to ascertain the facing direction of the vehicles within the railroad car in order to properly switch the railroad cars which results in a proper spotting of a track i.e.: where all the cars are facing the same direction.
It has been found that it is very difficult to ascertain the facing directions of vehicles on a railroad car as a train arrives in the unloading area due to the train's speed, lighting conditions, adverse weather conditions, and the like. Failure to determine the facing directions of a single car results in great expenditure of labor to obtain this information. If the facing direction of a single car is unknown, persons must walk along a railroad track and make a close visual inspection of the rail car to determine the information. An erroneous facing direction observation requires that the switching crew pull, turn, and respot a car facing in the wrong direction while delaying the unloading of other railroad cars. In addition, fuel is expended in unnecessary additional switching of cars.
A device which eliminates unreliable prior art methods of determining the facing direction of vehicles within a railroad car would be a great advance in the transportation field.